El Sexto has said he will paint a graffiti on my suitcase, a neighbor gave me an amulet for the journey and a certain friend noted his shoe size so I can bring him a pair. They said goodbye to me although I still haven’t left. I don’t even have a flight date. But something has changed for me since January 14 when the Migratory Reform announced last October went into effect. After waiting 24 hours outside the Department of Immigration and Aliens (DIE), I knew that finally they would issue me a new passport. With twenty « white cards » — the former exit permit — denied in five years, I confess I was more skeptical than hopeful. Even now, I will only believe I made it when I watch the plane lift off from inside.

It has been a long battle fought by many. A very long road of demanding that entering and leaving our country is an inalienable right, not a gift to be given. Although the flexibilizations in Decree-Law 302 are insufficient, not even these would have been achieved if we’d stood around with our arms crossed. They are not the fruit of a magnanimous gesture, but the result of systematic denunciations made against the absurdities of travel and immigration.

Hence my intention to continue « pushing the limits » of reform, to experience firsthand how far the willingness to change really goes. To transcend national frontiers I will make no concessions. If the Yoani S